Giants Draft Review

Saturday the Giants wrapped up the first draft of the Dave Gettlemen Era, and added value at all 6 of their draft spots.  Only problem was, they were doing so good, you'd wish they had more picks.  Of course, that wasn't a particular problem, because this year there was a pretty weak draft pool. Overall, they picked second in all but the 4th round, where the Ogletree caused them to flip from 2 to 8, but they still got their guy. Let's review:

First Round: The Giants take Saquon Barkley, the best runner, receiver, returner and player in this draft class.  Just like 1981. The Giants made Eli's life easier, OBJ's life easier, the OL better and the defenses life easier with one pick.  Some people wanted the Giants to gamble on one of the 4 elevated QB prospects in this draft, but they had a much better plan.

Second Round: After worrying all night that their guy, Will Hernandez, would be gone by 34.  They lucked out and he wasn't.  Hernandez was the second best G in this draft, behind Nelson, who might as well get fitted for his gold jacket.  He lasted till number 6.  Hernandez ended up going in the exact same spot that the Giants took Chris Snee. I believe they both ran 5.15 40s at the combine and have benched the tri-state aread. Hernandez will probably play of the left side (Snee played on the right side).  What's more, Hernandez and not Solder will be provide the new identity to the OL, which will now be headed moving in the right direction for the first time in years.

Third Round: A lot of us wanted the Giants to wrap up the OL with a tackle pick here, but it sure seems like their last tackle prospect went off the board and here's why.  The Giants had two tightly packed picks at the tip of round three, with the first being pass rush freak Lorenzo Carter. Later when summarizing, Gettlemen admitted that he had tried to trade up for Carter.  And I could only see this happening if the OL they had above Carter on their board had been picked.  Anyway, they got the kind of freak Boettcher has turned into stars.  After taking Carter, the Giants went back to planet theory and took flexible nose DT BJ Hill from the stacked NC State D-Line. He reminds everyone of Linval Joseph. Boettcher must have loved this.

Fourth Round:  The Giants surprised a lot of their fans as well as mortifying Patriot Nation, by selecting Senior Bowl MVP Kyle Lauletta. This is Shurmur's boy. After watching him outplay Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen at the Senior Bowl, he sent Shula out to California to watch Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen, and didn't watch them till they visited.  Lauletta also visited, where he no doubt rocked the white board. This morning Shurmur said Lauletta has West Coast feet.  This is just his guy and we have to defer to him.  By the way, he can strengthen his throwing arm, but I hope it doesn't slow down his super quick release.  I think he's going to get a chance to become the next Giant QB.

Round Five: With no other, OL's or CB's left, the Giants went back to another strength of the draft, DT, and took RJ McIntosh, a flexible passrush DT from Miami whould could be an end in the 3-4 and add to the waves and waves of passrushers that have always been a feature of the very best Giant D's. McIntosh probably would have gone higher had he not battled a thyroid condition during the all-star and testing processes.  Another pick with which Boettcher can add ferocity to the rotation. Nice.

This was just a really great draft top to bottom, where value trumped need and the Giants were able to honor their board.

They still have other areas to fortify with either band-aids for the coming season or long term solves. But they maxed their 6 picks, without reaching for a QB who should have stayed in school.